A radio communication apparatus for transmitting a high-speed digital signal or a broadband analog signal generally consists of a transmitter in which a product of an intermediate-frequency-band modulated signal (IF) and a local oscillation signal (LO) is obtained for up conversion, and a thus-generated radio-frequency modulated signal (RF) is transmitted; and a receiver in which the RF signal is received, and a product of the RF and an LO is obtained for down conversion, whereby an IF is produced. In such a case, in order to maintain the quality of a transmitted signal, the IF input to the transmitter and the IF generated in the receiver must have a known constant frequency difference therebetween, and variation in the phase difference with time must be small. Therefore, local oscillators for generating the LOs in the transmitter and the receiver must be high in frequency stability and low in phase noise. In particular, in a microwave or millimeter wave band in which radio waves are of high frequency, stable, low-noise local oscillators are realized by making use of a dielectric resonator or a PLL (Phase Lock Loop) circuit.
However, with an increase in the frequency to be used (e.g., in a millimeter wave band of 30 GHz or higher), the stable, low-noise oscillators become difficult to realize, and their production cost increases. For example, in the case of a dielectric resonator, its Q value (Quality Factor) decreases and fails to exhibit a desired performance. In the case of a PLL circuit, the configuration of a frequency divider becomes particularly difficult. In another method, a signal from a low-frequency oscillator is frequency-multiplied so as to obtain an LO. However, this method generally requires an amplifier for increasing the signal strength, which raises various problems, including increases in cost, size, and consumption of electrical power.
In order to solve these problems, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (kokai) NO. 2001-53640 has proposed a radio communication apparatus and a radio communication method (self-heterodyne scheme) as shown in sections (A) and (B) of FIG. 4. In a transmitter of this example, an intermediate-frequency-band modulated signal IF, which is obtained through modulation of input data, is mixed, by means of a mixer 83, with a local oscillation signal LO from a local oscillator 85 so as to obtain a product therebetween, whereby a radio-frequency modulated signal RF is generated. The RF is passed through a filter 86 for removal of unnecessary components and is then fed to a power mixer 87, at which a portion of the LO is added to the RF. After the RF is amplified by means of an amplifier 88 so as to increase its signal level, the RF is transmitted from an antenna as a radio signal. Meanwhile, in a receiver, a radio signal received by an antenna is amplified by means of an amplifier 91 so as to increase its signal level, and is then passed through a filter 92. Subsequently, the RF is demodulated to an IF by means of a square-law detector 93. In this method, the same LO as that used for generation of the RF signal is transmitted as a radio signal. Therefore, this method is advantageous in that influences of phase noise of the local oscillator 85 serving as an LO source are cancelled out at the time of demodulation and that the IF obtained through demodulation has the same frequency as that of the original IF input to the transmitter.
Moreover, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (kokai) NO. 2002-9655 discloses a system and method in which the above-described radio communication technique is applied to bi-directional radio communications.